First off, I'd like to thank all of you for the warm reception we've received to the Crafty Forums, and secondly for your support of our first release.

The second adventure is well under way, but what we'd like to know is what kind of stuff you'd like to see for this line. We have a lot of ideas of our own, but it's always good to get feedback from the community.

Stuff that would make sense being run at level 1 or around there. I have plenty of ideas, but they always seem a bit too extreme/epic to be run at level 1, which is where I want to start my campaign. So, stuff that's fun but still down to earth would be great; no dragon invasions or royalty assassinations or captured princesses or stuff like that. The kind of adventures you would have with heroes just starting their careers.

I like Sapkowski's novels a lot. I mean really a lot. The gritty world, the dark humor, the shades-of-gray-people, that's all I like. Maybe because it's both classic fantasy and fantasy with a non-classic approach. If you ever wrote adventures with that kind of feel, I'd be more than thrilled.

Stuff that would make sense being run at level 1 or around there. I have plenty of ideas, but they always seem a bit too extreme/epic to be run at level 1, which is where I want to start my campaign. So, stuff that's fun but still down to earth would be great; no dragon invasions or royalty assassinations or captured princesses or stuff like that. The kind of adventures you would have with heroes just starting their careers.

Depending upon how things go, the plan is to offer a variety of adventures and sidetreks that you can throw into your home game. Some of the scenarios may have the potential to be linked together, and with the sliding scales of Fantasy Craft, the option exists to throw some interesting things into the mix that can be approached early on in the PCs career path.

By the way, what do you have against captured princesses?

Quote from: aegis

I like Sapkowski's novels a lot. I mean really a lot. The gritty world, the dark humor, the shades-of-gray-people, that's all I like. Maybe because it's both classic fantasy and fantasy with a non-classic approach. If you ever wrote adventures with that kind of feel, I'd be more than thrilled.

I’ve been meaning to read these, and your descriptions are moving them up my “must buy” list. I trend towards that mixture of things in my own writing. As the OSF line grows and matures, I’m hopeful you’ll discover a few twists and turn. We’ve just begun to explore this territory. Some of my literary influences include Moorcock, Leiber, and de Camp; what I’ve long admired about those guys is their ability to take traditional tropes and make them fresh and interesting. The key, ultimately, is to imbue a sense of wonder and fun into what we’re working on. If we do our jobs properly, that should shine through in play.

It's not so much the princess that's the problem as much as it is how she conflicts with the current protagonists. The idea that a couple of virtually-unknown rag-tag adventurers who just left their hometown because ADVENTURE! would be requested by the king to save his daughter is a tad unrealistic, and the idea that they would be able to defeat anyone capable of capturing the princess in the first place is perhaps even more so.

Look at the Wheel of Time. There is an undeniable progression present in the main character that spans throughout the entire series, and it serves as a prime example of what I am talking about. In book 1 Rand is running away from Trollocs and just trying to survive for the most part, but by book 11 (haven't read the most recent book yet) he's wiping out small armies single-handedly and is king of not one but several different countries. Almost any plotline present at the end of the series would be totally out of place at the beginning, and vice versa. It takes the main character time to reach the level where he's doing epic stuff, and until that point he's doing stuff that is comparably more mundane, but still cool in their own right.

Buddy of mine [as his first attempt at GMing] ran a level 1 Fantasycraft game - and our first major adventure was go and get some food for for the village. It was fantastic - we went and hunted some wild boar to roast. The quest levels built up after that - to bigger and grander things. Just an observation, not a suggestion.

Depending on the world and how 'scalable' you want it to be.I quite like the idea of a game influenced by faerie tales, where someone with no experience can go and outwit/defeat the giant/dragon/monster, purely because they are the protagonist.Of course I'm not suggesting going and ripping off faerie tales, but I'd quite enjoy running something that managed to bear it inmind.

Of course some of the more interesting games in my collection are 'Griimm', 'Changeling' & 'World of Darkness:Innocents' (which fits the idea a lot more than it sounds like would), so your view may vary.

(on the other hand, talking people into playing these games is another matter completely - most of my group just want to play something D&Dish or CoCish)

It's not so much the princess that's the problem as much as it is how she conflicts with the current protagonists. The idea that a couple of virtually-unknown rag-tag adventurers who just left their hometown because ADVENTURE! would be requested by the king to save his daughter is a tad unrealistic, and the idea that they would be able to defeat anyone capable of capturing the princess in the first place is perhaps even more so.

Fair enough. The heroes ARE heroes though. It seems like a contextual challenge of creating a framework to lend verisimillitude to the scenario. Hmmm. It makes me consider creating a viable, low level rescue adventure...

Look at the Wheel of Time. There is an undeniable progression present in the main character that spans throughout the entire series, and it serves as a prime example of what I am talking about. In book 1 Rand is running away from Trollocs and just trying to survive for the most part, but by book 11 (haven't read the most recent book yet) he's wiping out small armies single-handedly and is king of not one but several different countries. Almost any plotline present at the end of the series would be totally out of place at the beginning, and vice versa. It takes the main character time to reach the level where he's doing epic stuff, and until that point he's doing stuff that is comparably more mundane, but still cool in their own right.

I read a large number of Jordan’s books, but then I went in other directions. I do know what you’re talking about, and I like the gradual progression of the series. (An interesting side note: Jordan and I both graduated from The Citadel.) I attempted to run a campaign like that once upon a time, but my group at the time didn’t have the proper mind-set and wanted to do great awesomeness from the outset.

Buddy of mine [as his first attempt at GMing] ran a level 1 Fantasycraft game - and our first major adventure was go and get some food for for the village. It was fantastic - we went and hunted some wild boar to roast. The quest levels built up after that - to bigger and grander things. Just an observation, not a suggestion.

I think you guys would kill me if I created a “turnip run” adventure. Wouldn’t you?

Depending on the world and how 'scalable' you want it to be.I quite like the idea of a game influenced by faerie tales, where someone with no experience can go and outwit/defeat the giant/dragon/monster, purely because they are the protagonist.Of course I'm not suggesting going and ripping off faerie tales, but I'd quite enjoy running something that managed to bear it inmind.

Of course some of the more interesting games in my collection are 'Griimm', 'Changeling' & 'World of Darkness:Innocents' (which fits the idea a lot more than it sounds like would), so your view may vary.

(on the other hand, talking people into playing these games is another matter completely - most of my group just want to play something D&Dish or CoCish)

My degree is in English Literature, and I do love a broad spectrum of stories. I had a complete collection of the Andrew Lang’s Fairy Books as a kid—they were not the sugar coated stories either. Some of them were quite brutal. There are many ways to introduce the thematic elements of fairy tales into adventures, and those elements will probably come more to the fore when we get to an elven run of adventures. First, we need to lay a solid foundation, but this is good information to bear in mind.

Heh, the core premise of good faerie tales in my experience is "If you take on hard work without complaint and are relentlessly polite... you'll live and probably will come out in roughly your original form. Unless it's a Russian folktale, in which case everyone dies, but you'll die the least painfully."

Heh, the core premise of good faerie tales in my experience is "If you take on hard work without complaint and are relentlessly polite... you'll live and probably will come out in roughly your original form. Unless it's a Russian folktale, in which case everyone dies, but you'll die the least painfully."

Oh come on - there are many Russian fairy tales with the traditional ending of 'and then they ate, 'til they could eat no more.'

Georgian fairy tales are also fun - look up The Man Who Was Full of Fun.

I would like to see some good old fashioned two or three part adventure series - not complete paths from 1 to 20, but along the lines of Bone Hill and Assassin's Knot. Against the Slavers, or Desert of Desolation. A few levels worth of adventure that hold together.

I tend to favor mystery and roleplay over combat, some of the old Monkey God adventures are good examples - All the King's Men and Edge of Dreams.

My degree is in English Literature, and I do love a broad spectrum of stories. I had a complete collection of the Andrew Lang’s Fairy Books as a kid—they were not the sugar coated stories either. Some of them were quite brutal. There are many ways to introduce the thematic elements of fairy tales into adventures, and those elements will probably come more to the fore when we get to an elven run of adventures. First, we need to lay a solid foundation, but this is good information to bear in mind.

Hunger of the Iron Mage is now out! It can continue the adventures begun in OSF1 and OSF2 or works all on its lonesome (but you don't wanna start there, do you?). Penned by our very own "Weird Dave" Olson, this is your chance to see how he throws down the fantasy. Get it! Love him! Tell him you love it (or him, he's not picky)!

Something lurks in the shadows beneath the mountain. Something hungry. A twisted secret from a lost dwarven hall creeps up from the depths, and a party of stalwart heroes must brave the dangers of the Jagged Reaches to put an end to its machinations. Will you take up the mantle of hero and face off against the horrors that dwell in the mountain's shadow, or will you fall victim to ... the hunger of the Iron Mage?

Hunger of the Iron Mage is designed for a party of four to six characters of any experience level, and serves as a continuation of the Old School Fantasy series, a nice one-off, or a side trek to drop into your ongoing fantasy campaign. It is an adventure filled with danger, adventure, an insane wizard, secret tunnels, and more troglodytes than you can shake a stick at.

Remember those days when sometimes you just wanted to let your hair down, grab some dice, and have an excuse to kill things? Good. We're coming to get ya!